The Most Important Tool
“The most important persuasion tool you have in your entire arsenal is integrity.” –Zig Ziglar
Hi Persuader,
I’m not a persuasion cop. I’m not any kind of cop. In fact, I actively dislike cops. My job and my passion in life is to teach you what I have learned about persuasion. Without attempting to monitor or pass judgment, part of that teaching is guiding you the in the ways in which this information can be misused for manipulation. I learned tough lessons the hard way when I was a young, eager, foolish man. As a result of those lessons learned, I know a thing or two about integrity and my hope is that you will learn from my heartache and trouble.
As we apply these social influence skills it is my sincere hope that we will go forward with an application towards ethics and integrity.
Ethics and integrity go hand in hand with congruity, and congruity forms a key component. Why? Congruity is like someone making a mistake and being genuinely sorry they made it. Whereas you can really tell the difference between that and someone who says I’m sorry but doesn’t necessarily mean it.
Ethics and integrity allow us to use these kinds of powerful skills and do so with a good clean conscience because we know that we’re using things on others that we’re comfortable having used on ourselves. And as you know, by participating in my program, the importance of integrity is something we constantly discuss. I encourage and promote good uses of ethics and integrity, however, I try to use good ethics and integrity in talking about ethics and integrity and not force them but bring them up, constantly showing why it’s helpful and useful to use them.
My belief is, that without ethics, integrity and congruity, a sales person will never rise above mediocrity.
Trustworthiness is one of the most valuable perceptions a client or prospect can have of us as people who sell for a living. Their perception needs to be in line with the reality for it to be truly powerful.
When I really started living my persuasion life with total integrity, I noticed amazing things start to happen for me and for my business. I began to draw more of what I wanted to me, I began to draw higher end clients and students who were also trustworthy whereas previously many of my clients were not people who I really wanted to do business with.
Having built up that aspect of my personality, having an abundance of integrity in the bank is like having built up my ‘f-you’ money. I could walk away from any situation that was not comfortable because I no longer “needed” to take on just anyone but could be very selective in my processes. Consider never compromising yourself again as the first step to never compromising yourself again. It’s an amazing feeling.
Until Next Time,
Kenrick E. Cleveland